Garfield: His 9 Lives (TV Special)
Not to be confused with the Book. Garfield: His 9 Lives is the ninth Garfield television special. Synopsis Garfield uses the popular myth of cats having nine lives to explain how he has grown into the cat he is today. Plot In The Beginning God wants to create the cat. He gives His staff instructions of the physical appearance of the cat. He also suggests that its eyes should glow in the dark, and that it should land of it's feet. God plans to give cats six eyes, but there were only two eyes left. God's staff talk about different features on the cat's face. God congratulates the staff for creating "the perfect animal". His staff become surprised as God then tells them to give the cat nine lives. He tells the staff that the nine lives would make a good story as the screen fades to black. Cave Cat Garfield comes onto the screen, holding a bone in his hand, and tells the viewer that he formed many of his likes and dislikes in his first life. He says he disliked his rock bed but liked the size of the Pteranodon drumsticks. A voice in the background tells the viewer that ten million years ago, the first cat crawled out of the sea. He also says that everything was crawling out of the sea such as the first snake, chicken, crabgrass, and real estate agent. A female cave cat (resembling Arlene), crawls out of the sea and attracts Cave Cat who chases her and bumps into a caveman who is then in pain. In another scenario, a volcano makes the sound "Foom!". Cave Cat says it twice but after thinking more, he thinks of "Meyow" and repeats the sound as he walks away. Caveman approaches Cave Cat and puts a collar with a leash on him. Cave Cat starts fighting, and is bashed on the head while the caveman shouts "Good Cat". The voice in the background says that Cave Cat learned to live with the caveman and spend his time as modern day cats do. The viewer sees him chasing a mouse who goes into a hole in a rock. Cave Cat sticks his hand and is burned when the mouse was revealed to be a fire breathing mouse. A caveman is showing the main caveman a simple trick using his thumb. After there is rumbling, The two cavemen are crushed by rocks and tell Cave Cat that "Big Bob" is coming. The cavemen run before big bob (who resembles Odie) appears. Big Bob slobbers onto Cave Cat and runs away. Cave Cat shouts and threatens Big Bob saying that he'll beat him up. Big Bob returns with a tree, wanting to play fetch and drops the tree unto Cave Cat, crushing him. The life ends there. King Cat Garfield, with a Pharaoh's cane in hand, explains that in ancient Egypt, cats were considered to be gods for their relationship to the cat goddess Bastet and worshiped as such. The story focuses on King Cat, the favored feline pet of dimwitted King Amenhotep III (or "Junior" as King Cat called him). King Cat begins the day by having his slave dogs, led by Odie, carry him on his throne to the pyramids as they are being built. When the slaves see King Cat, they immediately stop to bow in reverence, forgetting the stone block they are lifting and getting crushed by it as they do so. As the slaves carry their stone block over (with King Cat sitting on it), one of them falls to the ground in exhaustion. King Cat demands he get back to work, but the slave tells him that he should be more worried about himself. He points to hieroglyphics on the pyramid which show King Cat that should Junior die, he will be buried in the pyramid with all his worldly possessions, including his cat. Between Junior's lack of smarts and his evil brother Black Bart plotting to take the throne for himself, King Cat fears for his own life and swears to protect Junior. Riding Odie like a horse, King Cat returns in time to see Bart about to trick Junior into walking through a fake door at the edge of his raised throne, which will send him falling to his death. He manages to break Junior's fall. A block then falls out of the throne and nearly crushes Junior until King Cat shoves him out of the way, getting crushed again in his place. Junior blames King Cat for shoving him, which gets him angry until Odie holds him back. As Junior heads into his personal chamber, Bart drops a stick of dynamite inside it. King Cat sees it and, not knowing what it is, throws it inside where it blows up and kills Junior, unwittingly sealing his own fate. Junior's body is sealed into a sarcophagus and placed inside the completed pyramid, and King Cat is thrown in with him before Bart seals the door shut. Fortunately, Odie finds a loose block that allows him to get inside and rescue King Cat, and King Cat tells Odie that he'll do anything to repay the favor. The story ends with Odie being worshiped as Bart's new favorite pet, and slave cats led by King Cat are pulling his throne as they head off to the pyramids. In The Garden Court Musician Garfield explains that the fourth life was when he learned how to think on his feet. It was okay, but now he avoids it whenever possible. In the year 1720, George Frederick Handel (Freddie), the musician to King George I, is writing a fugue for the king's party while his cat, one of Garfield's previous incarnations, lazes around. Then, the Jester arrives to pester him and Freddie tells him to go away and he must finish the fugue by tonight or he will be executed. Then, the Jester tells him that the king expects a concerto for the party, which surprises Freddie. Freddy says he has no time to write a concerto to the party, to which the Jester states that if the king can't enjoy a concerto, he'll have fun at Freddie's execution, which terrifies Freddie. The Jester states that the concerto better be good, for the king hates to be disappointed. Then, Freddie then relies on the cat to write the final part of the concerto, while Freddie writes the first and second movement. At the ball, the royals are chattering away until the jester announces Freddie and his chambered quartet for his original concerto, To which he asks Freddie to perform. Then, his teeth turned into a guillotine and cut the apple in half reminding him painfully. The first movement plays and the Jester annoys him by tearing up a picture of him and his head and squeezing the doll until its head pops out. As the first part ends, the second movement begins and the Jester watches a slideshow of the Jester's head mounted on the wall, the Jester beheading himself, the Jester at the funeral post-execution and at a pool with two babes, to which he quickly goes back to the funeral picture, painfully reminding Freddie his life's on the line. Then the third movement starts. Unfortunately, the sheet music is splotched with cat paws and ink blots, which makes Freddie sweat profusely, the cat chatter its teeth in fear and the Jester holding a sign saying "See ya later, bud". To which the song plays in a jazzy, yet classical fashion, which shocks King George and the Queen at first, then the cat does a sly expression. Then, the king enjoyed the music and Freddie was impressed. He then dons on sunglasses and plays the piano and the king and queen danced to the song, the cat relaxed and the Jester was sorely disappointed that Freddie didn't fail. After that night, Freddie's cat swore off writing the newly-invented jazz music, as it seemed like a lot of work to him. Stunt Cat Garfield laments over how his fifth life as a stunt double was short as an unseen director orders him to the set. Seen in the style of a black-and-white silent movie, Ignatz the mouse is about to drop a giant load of bricks on Krazy Kat when the cameraman calls Stunt Cat over. Stunt Cat is made to stand in Krazy Kat's place and the bricks are dropped on him, ending the life as quickly as it began. Diana's Piano Garfield considers his sixth life his luckiest, because he fell in love with music as his owner, a girl, played the piano just for him. It begins with a woman in a rocking chair with her kitten named Patches wanting to tell him a story about her 8th birthday being one of the most memorable moments in her life, because she got a new kitten and took her first piano lesson. The story begins at the kitchen table where she and her family were having breakfast when her mother came to the room, to which she gives Sara a white fluffy kitten and starts hugging it. Sara's mother suggested to name her kitten "Diana", after the Roman Goddess of the hunt of the same name. Then, Sara's mother has another surprise for her, a woman named Mrs. Underwood to give Sara piano lessons, to which Sara initially rejects in favor of her cat. Her mother then states that Sara will thank her for this. It then shows Mrs. Underwood and Sara playing on the piano and Diana swatting a fly bothering her, to which she fell into the wires and Diana came up disappointed. For the next few months, Sara worked hard on her piano lessons, and every time she played, Diana placed her paw on her foot, to which Sara picks her up and places her on top of the piano because she was too tiny to get up on her own. Sara then wanted to become a better piano player because Diana had a sense when Sara hit a sour note. In a few years' time, she was a fairly good pianist by Diana's standards. Diana loved her music and seemed happier when Sara was playing it. Sara then reminisces that these were happy days and wished that they'd never part, until the day Sara left for college, to which Sara doesn't know who she'll miss more: her parents or Diana. By the time Sara returned home from college graduation, the little kid within her wanted to be Diana again, but this time, there was more people in Sara's life than Diana and her parents, to which Diana doubts on approving. Sara then announces that Lee and her have decided to marry. Diana then scratches Lee's leg and Sara states that' she'll move out of her parents' house and take Diana with her. The piano was then given as a wedding gift by her parents, even though Sara didn't have room for it. When Billy, Sara and Lee's baby, came about, Diana had a new friend, to her dismay. By that time, Diana was 14 years old and was too old to make it to the top of the piano on her own, but neither could Billy since he was too young. In the evening, Diana wasn't feeling well and Sara tucked Billy into bed early and played a concert's worth of songs just for Diana. By the time Sara finished, Diana refused to leave the piano. During the night, Diana got down to the piano's keyboard and laid down and then passed away in her sleep, signifying her testament for her love for Sara's music. In the modern day, Sara, now an adult, then asks Patches if she can play something for him. Lab Animal Garfield Space Cat Epilogue After the duo were killed by Commander Mendelson, a single spotlight shines on Garfield and Odie, both of whom are drawn without any color, as a door opens and God asks for their names. After introducing themselves, Garfield points out to God that the circumstances of his last life were too unfairly-stacked against him and Odie. God agrees with this and decides to give Garfield back his life, then asks which one it was. As it turns out, Heaven's computers were on the blink at the time and they weren't able to keep track of how many lives Garfield had already spent, so Garfield tells Him that it was his first life. God then asks if Odie is a cat as well, so Odie acts like one to convince Him. With a wave of His hand, God restores all nine lives to Garfield and Odie and the color returns to their bodies. The two friends share a happy hug as they vanish. God, in a close-up, is revealed to have cat-like eyes as He explains "We have to stick together, you know." Characters Major Characters *Garfield's Lives **Cave Cat **King Cat **The Orange Kitten **The Court Musician's Cat **Stunt Cat **Diane **19-GB **Garfield **Space Cat * Odie's Lives ** Big Bob ** "Slave Dog" ** Odie ** O.D.I.E (Operations Data Index Element) ** Odie Clones * God * King Amenhotep III ("Junior") * King Black Bart * Chloe * George Frederic Handel ("Freddie") * The Jester * Krazy Kat * Ignatz * Sara * Patches * Garfield's Mother * Jon Arbuckle * Commander Mendelson Trivia *In Garfield: The Movie, the way Jon acquires Odie is similar to how he does in Garfield's eighth life. *In the ninth life, the number on Space Cat's ship is 6/19, an allusion to the date of Garfield's birthday. *Five lives from the book appear in this special. **The book's fourth life was made into its own television special. Gallery InTheBeginning.png Life_No.1.png|Cave Cat CaveCat.png Life_No.2.png|King Cat KingCat.png Life_No.3.png|In The Garden InTheGarden.png Life_No.4.png|Court Musician CourtMusician.png Life_No.5.png|Stunt Cat StuntCat.png Life_No.6.png|Diana's Piano Diana'sPiano.png Life_No.7.png|Lab Animal LabAnimal.png Life_No.8.png|Garfield Garfield (H9L).png Life_No.9.png|Space Cat SpaceCat.png Garfield_and_Arlene_Stone_Age_1988.jpg|Garfield and Arlene in "Cave Cat". 19-GB.jpg|19-GB's appearance was similar to that of Oliver from Walt Disney's "Oliver & Company" Category:TV specials Category:Television